Source:
Gettysburg Times – 21 Dic 1995
Dealer South. All Vul
|
 A Q 3
 K 9 3 2
 8 5
 8 7 5 2 |
|
| J 6 2
5
A Q J 7 6 4
K 9 4 |
|
6 5
9 8 7 5 2
J
J 9 6 3 2 |
|
K 9 5
A Q 10 8 6
K 2
A Q 3 |
| West |
North |
East |
South |
|
|
|
1 |
| 2 |
2 |
Pass |
4 |
| Pass |
Pass |
Pass |
|
Opening lead:
2
Do you consider yourself a master of dummy-play technique?
Cover up the East and West hands and decide how you would play four hearts after West has overcalled in diamonds and selects a low spade as the opening lead. Despite the fact that your king of diamonds might be useless, after partner freely raises hearts the decision to judge your hand worth a jump to four hearts cannot be faulted. All that remains is for you to make it.
The ace of diamonds is surely wrong, and quite likely the king of clubs as well. If West has only a doubleton club, you can draw trumps, cash the ace of clubs, clear the spades ending in dummy, then lead a club to the queen. If that loses, West would be endplayed.
Unfortunately, that won’t work as the cards lie. Best is to win the spade in hand, draw trumps, then cash dummy’s high spades. Now lead a low diamond from dummy toward the king. If the defense is on the bull, East will insert the ten or nine, but you counter by allowing it to hold!
East can do no better than shift to the jack of clubs. Rise with the ace and exit with the king of diamonds to West’s ace! That endplays West regardless of how many clubs the defender holds or which defender has the king of clubs.
East-West can come to no more than two diamond tricks and one club, since West must either take the king of clubs or give you a ruff-sluff by returning one of the other plain suits. Well done!
